Scientists from Switzerland opened a package from Ethiopia. It was filthy.
For two months, public health researcher Abdifatah Muhummed had been collecting stool samples from children in a remote, pastoralist community in Ethiopia. He divided the samples into four tubes, froze them at 80 degrees and shipped them to Europe.
There are trillions of organisms in the bicyle. Human health can be improved by many of them. Their diversity is under threat.
Muhummed was astonished to find signs of antibiotic resistance in samples taken from children who had never been exposed to antibiotics.
Scientists want to create a global biobank and store samples from all over the world before it is too late. Adrian Egli is a microbiologist who is part of the launch team for the Microbiota Vault project.
Scientists are interested in stool samples from pastoralists. Muhummed, a PhD candidate who collected more than 350 samples as part of a collaboration between Jigjiga University, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and the University of Basel, says that the lifestyle of people who live in cities is different than that of people who live in rural
Milk is a staple in the diet of pastoralists. pastoralists have not been surveyed in health studies because they are nomadic, moving their flocks of sheep, goats, and camels among the few remaining areas of East Africa. They don't have a lot of access to healthcare.
People are exposed to a different environment when moving to a city. Muhummed said that pastoralists in Ethiopia are buying more food such as rice and pasta. The specializedbacteria in their guts could be wiped out if this change is made.
Tens of thousands of stool samples from healthy people all over the world could one day be permanently stored in the Microbiota Vault. In the distant future, they could be revived and cultured to cure diseases.
Many researchers want to keep their stool samples in the vault as a backup and there are already dozens of stool banks. Contributors would divide their samples into two separate pieces, one for the vault and the other for local use. It's a win-WIN for both sides. We have access to the data at some point, but we don't have the infrastructure. The Microbiota Vault project team wants to document and publish the data in a way that will facilitate international research.
The location of the actual vault, currently just a freezer in Egli's lab at the University of Zurich, is still undecided. The pilot phase will cost $1 million.
To realize their vision, Egli and his colleagues need to test which freezing techniques and Preservatives are the best for the long term. When the first batches of samples are frozen and re-analyzed after two years, they will discover this. He says that they can say which method preserves the most diversity.
The article was first published in WIRED UK magazine.
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